The Gershwin estate has commissioned a new book for the brothers' big hit of 1926,Oh, Kay! -- hoping to top the most successful Gershwin show of all time: Crazy for You, the 1992 "revisal" of their 1930 Girl Crazy.

The Gershwin estate has commissioned a new book for the brothers' big hit of 1926,Oh, Kay! -- hoping to top the most successful Gershwin show of all time: Crazy for You, the 1992 "revisal" of their 1930 Girl Crazy.

The chore of overhauling the original book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse has fallen to Joe DiPietro, the author and lyricist of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, a sleeper hit that will begin its third year at the Westside Theatre on Aug. 1.

"Of all those old kind of princess musicals, Oh, Kay! is the one that seems to have the strongest book," says DiPietro. "It's basically very light and fluffy -- with a couple of very funny scenes in it -- and The Gershwin Trust has asked me to come in and restructure the book, as opposed to rebandaging it. I'm keeping about seven or eight songs and transferring into it some big Gershwin comic/charm numbers from other shows."Gertrude Lawrence became a full-fledged Broadway star with the original show, introducing to the world "Do-Do-Do," "Maybe" and the incomparable "Someone To Watch Over Me." Other evergreens include "Heaven on Earth" and "Clap Yo' Hands."

So far work has been purely speculative. There is no timetable, venue or producer for the revised script -- yet.

Legendary producer David Merrick attempted to restore Oh, Kay! to its former Broadway glory in 1991 -- twice -- and both attempts met with failure. -- By Harry Haun